No good deed goes unpunished

By Aussiegirl

We remember her as the heroine who started the Orange Revolution by signing her disapproval of the rigged election and signalling voters that the outcome was a fraud. Now she is out of a job. She still plans to vote for anyone but Yanukovych, whom she correctly sees as a lackey of Moscow.

Anger of heroine who signed up for a new future - World - Times Online

AT THE height of the Orange Revolution Natalya Dmytruk risked everything for her political beliefs.
A sign language interpreter at the state television channel UT-1, she abandoned the script during a live news bulletin in November 2004 to denounce a rigged presidential election and declare her support for the defeated candidate, Viktor Yushchenko.

Mrs Dmytruk was hailed as a heroine after Mr Yushchenko swept to power in a re-run of the poll a month later. But when a hot-headed young reformer was appointed to shake up UT-1, Mrs Dmytruk was told that the channel no longer needed sign language interpretation.

[...]Her disillusionment is being mirrored around this country of 49 million people as it prepares for parliamentary elections on March 26. Mrs Dmytruk, 48, still believes in Mr Yushchenko but, like many of his supporters, she has lost faith in his Our Ukraine party. She is even more sceptical about the bloc controlled by his revolutionary partner, Yuliya Tymoshenko. The hardest blow came last year when Mr Yushchenko sacked Mrs Tymoshenko as Prime Minister.

“I was very sorry, just as a human being,” Mrs Dmytruk said. “They stood hand in hand on the square in Kiev and declared their commitment to certain ideals.”

Her disappointment deepened when Parliament sacked Mr Yushchenko’s second Government last month.

Now she says she will vote for anyone as long as it helps to prevent Viktor Yanukovych, whose election victory she refused to report in 2004, from returning to power.

“It’s scary,” she said. “For centuries Russia’s ambition has been to control everything. A small country called Ukraine tried to raise its head. Now the Russian Government is pulling the strings again."